The phenomenon of add-ons and expansion packs in CRPGs is still a rather new one. The first add-on pack I can remember for an RPG was Baldur's Gate's Tales of the Sword Coast. I remember being very surprised to see an add on for a game I had enjoyed so much, but also because I never expected one at the time since Baldur's Gate was a true CRPG. Nowadays, add-ons are an expected commodity. Most games, especially single player CRPGs, have an add-on pack for sale a few months after their release. Why did anyone think of making add-ons for CRPGs? Why not before?

A new kid on the block
The answer probably is Ultima Online (UO) which completely shifted the scales of the CRPG genre in 1997, which coincidentally is one year before Baldur's Gate revived the single-player genre. The birth of MMORPGs created a need for the single-player game developers to be more creative in the way of extending the "hard drive life" of their games. How could developers extend the amount of time their game stays installed on your computer?

Add-ons weren't really the answer, although it was a primary solution. The truly revolutionary advent for CRPGs is the modular construct that has just made a tremendous impact this year. When Morrowind was released, it proved to be a new dawn for the genre in terms of game development.

A mod for my RPG?
Morrowind is in fact built very much like an action game. For many years already the action genre has had a plethora of modules (otherwise called "mods") available for download on the web. Some are player-made, others professionally produced, but all are very easily obtainable. The success and longevity of a game like Half Life is a precedent in modular gaming, a game that is still being enjoyed by a staggering amount of people through many player-made modules today, even 4 years after its release!

Taking that modular concept in CRPG is what will be keeping the single player genre alive in the years to come. The ability to add anything to an existing game, from player-made dungeons and adventures to full-blown developer-made expansion packs, is rather impressive. These "add-ons" are no longer a simple new area with new monsters roaming the new patch of land along with a few bug fixes here and there. Those modules often reshape the land entirely, or offer entirely new adventures that are completely outside of the game's scope. But what's more impressive is that players themselves can now make their own modules for their favorite CRPG, something you couldn't even dream of doing before.

I remember back in the Baldur's Gate days that the player community was begging for Bioware to release the source code of their game so that they could make their own modules. That was unfortunately not possible at the time, but Bioware did take the requests to heart otherwise Neverwinter Nights might never have been the game it is today. And perhaps this new crop of players who want to craft their own game as they want it to be forced Morrowind's developers to release their construction tools to the public along with their game. Let's not forget Dungeon Siege which did the same earlier this year, another modular RPG that successfully allow players to create their own content. Although I feel I have to acknowledge that the first CRPG to incorporate this modular concept was Vampire: The Masquerade, the design was not mature enough at the time to make as big an impact as this year's crop of games did.

Modular Awareness
Very soon now, the way a CRPG is made will make a difference to the player shopping for that next title he will want to buy. There's a chance that if he can only afford to buy one he will go for the open-sourced game, or the one that comes with a construction set because he knows many other players like him will make tons of content he can eventually download from the web. It will be the decisive feature between any given game. We're already seeing players shunning games just because they are not 3D, and that differentiation will soon be obsolete because only a very few games will be made in 2D next year.

The modular concept also makes PC gaming more advantageous to players over their console counterpart. Console RPGs, for the moment at least, still cannot have expansion packs, which gives a huge edge to those who decided to buy PC versions of their games. Of course, this might change in the future as hard drives are now standard features on newer consoles, but for the moment it creates some frustrations for console owners. Those who chose to buy the Xbox instead of the PC version of Morrowind currently find themselves in a bind as Tribunal hits the shelves... for PCs only.

I wonder if CRPG fans are aware of this groundbreaking year we are having. It has seen the birth of a new way of making CRPGs, and it's a great way at that! That game you just bought last March might get another shot in the arm every other few weeks if you keep a close eye on the community web sites crawling all over the place. All free of charge for the next few years. Even though some might not have enjoyed the games themselves, one must recognize the revolutionary concept they have ushered in. Those who can't stand MMORPGs (and I can certainly understand why you can't) do not need to fear, not yet. Our single-player role playing days will no longer be the same after this wonderful year.